Observations
by livvi695
Summary: Hiccup's gone through some pretty impresive changes and Astrid can't help but think about them, I mean who wouldn't. Looking back on these changes Astrid can't help but notiice that her feeling for Hiccup have changed as well as him.
1. Observations Edited

**For those of you that are wondering I took this story down because I wanted to make some slight adjustments to it, especially the ending which I wanted to make more canon, so apologises to the people who liked the story as it was, but it still will be the same story for the most part just edited the end slightly and improved the format and flow of the story. **

**This is a OneShot that I've had in my head for ages but haven't got round to posting, so I thought since I've got time I'll finish and post it.**

**If you're a fan of my other HTTYD fic then I know it's been a while but I still do intend to finish it. **

**This fic is in Astrids P.O.V and contains flashbacks, which are clearly marked.**

**Please review and Hope You Enjoy XD**

I couldn't help but observe the changes Hiccup had under gone in the last few weeks. Only two months ago he was a small, weak kid, who couldn't hold a weapon, couldn't walk on a flat surface without falling over and who was permanently causing havoc for the rest of the tribe. But now Hiccup was …. Different.

To be honest I wouldn't have noticed until it seemed everyone started talking about it. Now normally I wouldn't take part in tribe gossip, but I was just so suspicious of what he was doing. First Fishlegs commented to me about Hiccup's increased knowledge on dragons. I let the memory of that day flow through my mind...

_I was sitting in the stands of the arena sharpening my axe. I noticed that Hiccup was down in the training area with a Nadder, from here it looked like they were playing…. Tag? But instead of thinking about it any further (Which in hind sight I should have) I decided to sit and study the dragons movements as it gracefully moved around the arena. I was so engrossed in watching the dragon's movements that I didn't even notice Fishlegs come and sit with me until he started talking to me._

"_Don't you think it's odd?" He questioned me._

_I shuck myself out of my daze. "What?... That Hiccup's is for some reason chasing a dragon. He's probably just trying to get ahead of us in training, so he can 'prove himself'" I replied sarcastically._

"_No, not that. the fact that Hiccup knows so much about dragons. I mean look at him now."_

_I turned my gaze to the ring where Hiccup was chasing a shield around the ring, as the dragon sat and laughed at Hiccup._

"_Look," Fishlegs continued, "He is on purposely making the dragon laugh, to reduce its defence. Looking at the dragons posture now I would say its defence is no higher than 2, where as a normal Nadder would usually have a defence of around 8. See look now Hiccup is approaching the dragon from behind, look it sees Hiccup and turns to face him, a typical reaction would be for the dragon to fire its spikes and fly in the opposite direction."_

_I watched as Hiccup guided the dragon back into its enclosure. Now that Fishlegs has pointed it out to me I began thinking about all the times I had seen Hiccup interact with dragons recently. I realized that ever since that raid about two weeks ago, which almost ended in Hiccup being eaten by a Nightmare and supposedly shot down a Night Fury, Hiccup had been acting differently with the dragons. How did he become so knowledgeable on dragons?_

"_But Fishlegs, you know a lot about dragons, maybe Hiccups just started reading some of your dragon books."_

"_Yeah I know about dragon species. I can I identify any dragon with a 100 foot radius, but Hiccup seems to somehow know actual information about the dragons, such as their likes and dislikes. And no book to my knowledge has that information."_

"_Huh" was all I could think of replying. I watched as Hiccup made his way out of the ring and past the stands where Fishlegs and I were sitting. He stopped when he saw us, and he looked really guilty about something, but I have no idea what. After a brief awkward silence Hiccup raised his hand in a waving gesture, before sprinting off into the woods. 'Odd' I thought._

"_Strange…..very strange" Fishlegs muttered as he got up and left. I turned to gaze at the direction Hiccup had gone and couldn't help the feeling that I was missing something…something BIG, but I just shrugged the thought off and returned to sharpening my axe._

I brought myself back to the present and realised that I only had a couple of hours before mine and Hiccup's match with the Gronkle. Winner takes all and I was trying to do some quick practice before the match, but everywhere I went he was there. I was practicing my axe throws on a tree near the edge of the village. I was getting really annoyed with the memories of our recent dragon training sessions, when who should pop out of nowhere but the object of my annoyance. We stood still for a moment just staring at each other, me with my axe poised at the ready, Hiccup standing holding what seemed to be very heavy equipment, before he ran further into the forest, out of my sight. I had to admit I was impressed, first with the fact that he stood holding such heavy equipment with ease and also with the fact that he managed to out run me carrying said heavy equipment. As I walked back to the village I couldn't help but remember other times I had seen Hiccup randomly carrying heavy loads of equipment for no particular reason. The first time was when Snotlout and I were spending a rare relaxing afternoon fishing. I let my consciousness flow into the memory...

_Snotlout and I sat on one of the piers with our feet lazily dangling off the edge while we held onto our rods. I usually had a rule about spending alone time with Snotlout as I didn't want to encourage his crush on me, but when suggested a fishing day I thought there would be no harm in it as there wouldn't be much talking, or in his case really bad flirting as it would scare away the fish. I was just about to doze off when Snotlout nudged me in the side._

"_Oi, what was that for?" I starred accusingly._

"_Look, check out who's actually doing some manual labour" Snotlout whispered and pointed over to one of the further out piers, closer to the deep water where the bigger fish swam._

"_Oh Thor, what is he doing? He's going to get pulled under soon, what an idiot."I fell back on to the pier marvelling at his sheer stupidity._

"_Look he's caught something, this is going to be funny" I shot upright and glanced over to where I saw Hiccup wrestling with one of the biggest fish I've ever seen. He effortlessly pulled the huge fish out of the water and dumped it in a massive basket that was already over brimming with fish. I relaxed back into my original position never taking my eyes of Hiccup as he threw his line back into the water._

"_Well that wasn't quite the show I was expecting" Snotlout said next to me. I carried on watching Hiccup as he piled up more and more fish._

"_Hey Snotlout, did Hiccup get here before or after us?"_

"_Ummm, I didn't see him when we got here. No we were here first because we were going to go on that pier and catch some big fish, but….er….um….my shoulder hurt, so we stayed at the shallow."_

"_So Hiccup got here after us, but has somehow managed to catch a load more fish than us, even though were fishing in shallow water where the fish are easier to catch."_

"_Um….yeah."_

_I turned back to Hiccup to see that he was staring into his basket of fish. He seemed satisfied with what he'd caught because he set his rod down and was now fastening on the baskets lid._

"_How do you reckon he's going to get that basket up the hill, it looks really heavy."I asked._

"_Dunno, he'll probably go get Gobber to carry it for him." Snotlout laughed._

_His laugh trailed off as we watched Hiccup as he easily picked up the basket and slung it on his shoulders. He then looked at the position of the sun, before running….RUNNING – let me just remind you about the very heavy basket of fish on his back – up the really steep hill of the village._

"_Or, he'll just carry it himself." Snotlout said with an astonished look on his face._

_Well that was unexpected._

_3Hours later -_

_I was relaxing in my room at home when my father called me down to the living area. "Astrid, take my warhammer down to the forge will you? It needs to be repaired and sharpened. It got damaged during that dragon raid four weeks ago."_

"_Of course father." I muttered before walking over and taking the axe out of his hands. The moment I was holding all of its weight my arms immediately fell to the floor, this was only because in battle I relied on my speed and agility to win my battles and so I was used to lighter weapons, not weapons such as the heavy hammer my father used. With A LOT of effort I managed to hoist it on my shoulder, and began the journey down the hill to the forge._

_When I got to the forge, which took me twice as long as it normally does because of my heavy load. I opened the door, walked in and straight away banged to hammer down on to the table, the force causing everything on the table to jump up. Hiccup hearing the noise came out of his little work room to see what was going on._

"_Oh….Astrid…..um….hi Astrid. What… do you need?" He said whilst quickly closing the door to his work area. Suspicious I thought._

"_Is Gobber here, I've got a job for him."_

"_No he left early, maybe I can help you?"_

"_Well, I need this fixing but it really should be Gobber that does it."_

"_Why, it looks like a basic repair and sharpen, even a novice can do that."_

_He started reaching out towards the axe._

"_Be careful," I started, "It's REALLY…." Hiccup had already simply picked up the hammer and was heading to the workbench. "…heavy." I trailed off._

_This just isn't right first the fish, now the axe, what's going on? I thought about confronting him, but he had already started work on the axe. So I decided to leave it, until another time._

I brought myself back to the present and realised that the match was fast approaching and I couldn't concentrate on training. It was pissing me off too no end. I just couldn't stop thinking about Hiccup, it's like he's invaded my mind. I couldn't help but think about the other changes Hiccup had gone through in the last month.

I noticed that Hiccup was walking around the village, an unreadable expression on his face. He was walking in front of one of the many houses of the village. From where I was standing I could hear raised voices coming from inside the house. Someone was arguing.

"Ronna if you don't give me my axe back this instant, there will be Hel to pay." Someone shouted from within the house.

"Well then Rockhead" another person shouted. "If you love your damn axe so much, go fetch it."

With that a huge axe was flung out a first floor window and was set to land right where Hiccup was standing. The was no way I could reach him in time, and it struck me as odd, how much I wanted to save him. I was actually scared that something would happen to him.

But all my worrying was for nothing as Hiccup sensing that something was wrong did a very graceful forward roll and turned to look at where the axe had embedded itself into the ground, exactly where Hiccup had been standing moments before. The two arguing Vikings ran out the house, quickly apologised to Hiccup before continuing to fight over the axe. Hiccup told them he was fine and carried on walking as if nothing happened, not like he very nearly lost his life. As I thought about it, this wasn't the first time I had seen Hiccup show some pretty impressive reflexes. Yet again I threw myself back into a memory of Hiccup...

_We were all gathered in the arena for dragon training, awaiting Gobber's arrival. I stood with my arms folded with a scowl on my face, keeping up my tough girl image. The rest of the teens were standing in a group talking excitedly about today's lesson. Hiccup was standing away from the rest of us; his mind seemed to be elsewhere. I was too busy glaring at Hiccup for not being vigilant to notice Tuffnut start talking to me._

"_Hey guess what happened yesterday." Tuff asked me._

"_What ever happened I don't care." I replied turning my head to stare at one of the dragon enclosures._

"_But it was really weird, you won't believe it when I tell you."_

"_Tell me then, it doesn't look like Gobber will be showing up anytime soon." I said turning to give Tuffnut my full attention._

"_Well yesterday I was lobbing rocks at Ruffnut because she was annoying me, and I threw this really great throw, it was fast, it was strong, it was awesome. Unfortunately Ruffnut had moved out of the way before I threw it, so the rock was flying through the air and who should step in front of it, but our good friend Hiccup." He said in a sarcastic voice. "It was heading right for his face." I turned to inspect Hiccup's face, if this throw was as amazing as Tuffnut was saying it would have left a mark._

"_He doesn't look like he's been hit in the face with a rock." I stated._

"_I know this is where the strange thing happens. Just before the rock collided with his head, his hand shot up and caught the rock, just like that. It was borderline spooky." Here Tuffnut visibly shuddered. "And then he just laughed, shouted at me to be careful where I was throwing and threw the rock back to me. It was weird, I mean it's like he knew the rock was coming, before I even threw it."_

"_It was probably just luck. Everyone gets lucky days, even Hiccup." I was now looking at Hiccups hands as he lazily swung them at his sides. Again if this throw was as powerful as Tuffnut claimed, then Hiccup should have a bruise in the palm of his hand. From what I could see his hands were still flesh pink, apart from a few, what looked like burn marks. Not a bruise in sight._

"_Now you're either over estimating the power of this throw, or your bullshitting me. Which is it?" I asked._

"_It's true. Look, I'll show you."_

_Tuffnut turned and went over to the side and bent to pick something up. I assumed it was a rock. He came to stand next to me._

"_Are you ready? Make sure you watch him. I bet you two gold pieces he doesn't get hit."_

"_Deal but you're explaining it to Gobber why Hiccup has a black eye."_

_A part of me was knew that Tuffnut was being stupid and that Hiccup was probably going to get hurt, but a small part of me was hoping that it was true, not only to let Tuffnut prove his point but so that Hiccup wouldn't get hurt. I didn't have any time to ponder this realization, before something shiny caught my eye._

_Now Hiccup was standing 30 feet away from Tuffnut and I, a very short distance in retrospective. Tuffnut was getting into his throwing stance and I noticed that the thing that caught my eye was in Tuffnut's right hand. What I had previously thought to be a rock turned out to be a very real, very sharp throwing knife._

"_Tuff, are you crazy?" I shouted, but it was too late, he had already released the knife from his hand. I watched helplessly as the knife flew through the air. I watched as Hiccup sensed the incoming danger and I watched as he clapped his hands over the knife, stopping it centimetres from his face. Before the realisation hit me of what Hiccup had just done he was standing in front of Tuffnut, I no idea now he managed to get over here so fast._

"_What the Hel Tuffnut? While did you throw a knife at my face?" Hiccup shouted._

"_Don't worry; I knew you'd catch it." Tuffnut replied with a smirk on his face._

"_Not the point. Knife…Face," pointing between his face and the knife. "What would have happened if I didn't catch it?"_

"_It doesn't matter, what does matter is the fact that Astrid owes me two gold pieces." Tuffnut smiled triumphantly at me._

"_Aghh…"Hiccup moaned, before throwing the offending knife at the weapons rack where it embedded itself in its assigned place on the rack._

_Tuffnut was right, that was weird._

I had minutes before I had to be at the arena. As I was making my way down to the arena, I passed a group of Viking girls, about a year or two older than myself. I just caught the end of their conversation.

"I can't wait until the fight, do you think he'll do it topless. I would love to see that."

"Maybe, or maybe he'll go in wearing a shirt, but it will get ripped off during the fight, then he'll be topless and have some sexy battle scars."

"Ohhh I hope he wins. He's so much better than…. Ow what was that for?... Oh come on lets go get could seats. "

They obliviously noticed me standing right next to them. Dumb bimbos. Although I couldn't really blame them, Hiccup had something of a reputation around the village as some major eye candy. I remember the first time I noticed it.

_It was a very, very rare hot day on Berk and Ruffnut had managed to convince me to go sunbathing with her. We were lying across a rock in the centre of the village, but because of this central location I found it better to keep my eye closed for two very important reasons, first was to keep the sun out of my eyes and the second the much more important reason was to avoid unappetizing sights. This hot day had caused many Viking to shed many of their outer layers such as the thick furs they usually wore to keep warm, some even going as far as to remove all outer layers, (Except to obvious of course.) which meant that no matter where you looked you had some Viking or others large belly starring right at you. It was almost nauseating. Don't get me wrong, there were some Viking that were quite pleasing to look at, and they were few and far between so better to just avoid looking all together, save your eyes the trouble. Now back to sunbathing._

_Off to my right I could hear high pitched squealing and continuous giggling and it was really starting to annoy me. I was debating whether or not to get up and go tell them to shut up before I shove whatever's nearby down their throats. But the last time I sat up, I caught sight of Fishlegs without a top on and I wasn't ready to see that again. So I just tried to ignore them._

_From where I was laying down, the mob of girls was too my right which meant they were outside one of three building, the Fishmongers, the Butchers and the forge, none of them particularly exciting for a mob of girls. I was really curious to find out what was happening, but then the Fishlegs image flew through my mind and I figured whatever it was, wasn't that spectacular and I decided to put up with it. Luckily for me I didn't have to put up with it for long as the group of girls suddenly all gasped and went silent._

_I could tell that Ruffnut had sat up because a shadow had been cast over the top half of my body._

"_Oh my Thor…." Ruffnut gasped. "Astrid you have to see this."_

"_No I'm not falling for it again." During the past hour Ruffnut had announced several things I 'had to see', yet all of them turned out to be very disturbing sights of various Viking of the village, mostly the men showing off their proud beer belly._

"_No I mean it this time you have to see it, this view is amazing."_

_Curiosity got the better of me, and it couldn't be that bad if she was talking about the view. I pushed myself up placing weight on my hands that were stretched out behind me. I looked towards the horizon and saw….Not much, the usual sea, sky, sun, nothing particularly amazing. "What am I supposed to be looking at?" I asked. Ruffnut didn't even take her eyes what she was looking at as she reached her hand up and pushed the side of my face until it was facing to direction of the forge where I saw Gobber walking towards the general store, who like many of the others couldn't bear to wear the top half of his clothes._

"_Ruff" I said in an annoyed voice, "You said it wasn't like the others" I huffed and was about to lay back down when Ruffnut spoke._

"_No, look a little more to your right." I did as she said and…._

"_Oh my Thor…." I gasped._

"_I know right." Ruffnut giggled._

_There I saw Hiccup walking out of the forge minus the top half of his clothes and I have to say the sight was not unappetizing. His body glistened with sweat, the beads of which glided down his broad chest before making its way down his toned abs before disappearing down his trousers. His hair was in a devilish mess some of which fell over one of his eyes before he pushed it aside. He also had dark smudges in various places on his body. Over all he looked amazingly sexy. Damn!_

_I could definitely understand what those girls were squealing at, from where they stood they would be able to see right into the forge, right into where hiccup was working, with no top on, sweating as he concentrated, and I'm going to stop that train of thought before it goes too far. I noticed that those girls were still watching Hiccup as he put his hand in a bucket of water and then swiped it round the back of his neck and I felt an unfamiliar feeling, almost like… Jealousy? I didn't stop to think about it before I walked past the girl's right up to Hiccup. I could feel them starring holes in the back of my head but I continued until I was standing in front of him._

"_Hello Hiccup" I said. He must have not noticed me because he jumped when I spoke._

"_Oh, hi Astrid."_

"_How come you're not in the forge?" I asked just for the sake of something to ask._

"_Well Gobber couldn't stand the heat so he decided to close early."_

"_Oh that's a shame because I was just about to go in and ask for a new wrist band." I looked up at him sweetly._

"_Well I could make you one now if you don't mind me doing it."_

"_Of course I don't mind. Come on let's get back into the forge."_

"_Are you sure you don't mind waiting for it, it might take a while."_

"_No I don't mind waiting for it"_

_We walked into the forge and Hiccup immediately got to work on my new wrist band, fresh sweat started to glide along his chiselled skin. I walked up to the shutters of the window and shot the group of girls a triumphant smile before closing them so they could no longer see him. And then I just watched him work, I watched as his muscles worked beneath his skin, the look of concentration on his face. You know I might need a new necklace as well, I thought._

I had to officially stop thinking about Hiccup now, I told myself as I stood in front of the arenas gate, thinking about him now could get me killed. I have to get my mind in the battle, because at this point one mistimed roll and it would be the end for me; and these new, confusing feeling for Hiccup were not going to stop me from winning this. I looked forward and saw Hiccup already in the Arena, unfortunately wearing a shirt. He turned round and saw me and a bunch of unreadable emotions passed over his face before finally settling on worry. At that moment I looked at Hiccup, I mean really looked at him. I had always had always had a set image of Hiccup in my mind, the sorry excuse of a Viking. But know I added all the observations I had gathered about him over the last few weeks; the sudden knowledge, the impressive strength, the inhuman reflexes and the unfairly gorgeous looks. He was still nowhere near a Viking in terms of size and looks, but he was a man. He was no longer was the weak little boy I thought he always would be, he was a man who had started to literally crawl into my mind and nearly consumed my thoughts.

But right now I cast every thought apart from the fact that he was the only thing standing between me and victory from my mind. I walked forward and took my place next to him and waited for the Gronkle's cage door to open. After all there would be plenty of time to question Hiccup on his mysterious changes after I won.

The End

**Did you notice that towards the end Astrid had a pretty weird fascination with sweat lol.**

**I love the idea of this kind of Hiccup, which you've probably figured out if you've read my other story lol.**

**I don't think there'd anything that needs explaining, but if you're unsure review. If you understand everything, good for you but review anyway.**

**Can the people who read my story before let me know what they think of the changes please, and everybody else just let me know what you think **


	2. Observations

**This is a OneShot that I've had for ages but haven't got round to posting, so I thought since I've got time I'll finish and post it.**

**If you're a fan of my other HTTYD fic then I know it's been a while but I still do intend to fish it. That anonymous reviewer hasn't deterred me**

**This fic is in Astrids P.O.V and contains flashbacks, which are clearly marked.**

**Please review and Hope You Enjoy XD**

I couldn't help but observe the changes Hiccup had under gone in the last few weeks. Only two months ago he was a small, weak kid, who couldn't hold a weapon, couldn't walk on a flat surface without falling over and who was permanently causing havoc for the rest of the tribe. But now Hiccup was …. Different.

To be honest I wouldn't have noticed until it seemed everyone started talking about it. Now normally I wouldn't take part in tribe gossip, but I was just so curious. First Fishlegs commented to me about Hiccup's increased knowledge on dragons.

_/Flashback\\_

_I was sitting in the stands of the arena sharpening my axe. I noticed that Hiccup was down in the training area with a Nadder, from here it looked like they were playing…. Tag? But instead of thinking about it any further I decided to sit and study the dragons movements as it gracefully moved around the arena. I was so engrossed in watching the dragon's movements that I didn't even notice Fishlegs come and sit with me until he started talking to me._

"_Don't you think it's odd?"_

_I shock myself out of my daze. "What?... That Hiccup's is for some reason chasing a dragon. He's probably just trying to get ahead of us in training, so he can 'prove himself'" I replied sarcastically._

"_No, not that. The fact that Hiccup knows so much about dragons. I mean look at him now."_

_I turned my gaze to the ring where Hiccup was chasing a shield around the ring, as the dragon sat and laughed at Hiccup._

"_Look," Fishlegs continued, "He is on purposely making the dragon laugh, to reduce its defense. Looking at the dragons posture now I would say its defense is no higher than 2, where as a normal Nadder would usually have a defense of around 8. See look now Hiccup is approaching the dragon from behind, look it sees Hiccup and turns to face him, a typical reaction would be for the dragon to fire its spikes and fly in the opposite direction."_

_I watched as Hiccup guided the dragon back into its enclosure. Now that Fishlegs has pointed it out to me I began thinking about all the times I had seen Hiccup interact with dragons recently. I realized that ever since that raid about two weeks ago, which almost ended in Hiccup being eaten by a Nightmare, Hiccup had been acting differently with the dragons. How did he become so knowledgeable on dragons?_

"_But Fishlegs, you know a lot about dragons, maybe Hiccups just started reading some of your dragon books."_

"_Yeah I know about dragon species. I can I identify any dragon with an 100 foot radius, but Hiccup seems to somehow know actual information about the dragons, such as their likes and dislikes. And no book to my knowledge has that information."_

"_Huh" was all I could think of replying. I watch as Hiccup made his way out of the ring and past the stands where Fishlegs and I were sitting. He stopped when he saw us, and he looked really guilty about something, but I have no idea what. After a brief awkward silence Hiccup raised his hand in a waving gesture, before sprinting off into the woods. 'Odd' I thought._

"_Strange…..very strange" Fishlegs muttered as he got up and left. I turned to gaze at the direction Hiccup had gone and couldn't help the feeling that I was missing something…something BIG, but I just shrugged the thought off and returned to sharpening my axe._

_/End Flashback\\_

I had only a couple of hours before mine and Hiccup's match with the Gronkle. Winner takes all and I was trying to do some quick practice before the match, but everywhere I went he was there. I was practicing my axe throws on a tree near the edge of the village. I was getting really annoyed with the memories of our recent dragon training sessions, when who should pop out of nowhere but the object of my annoyance. We stood still for a moment just staring at each other, me with my axe poised at the ready, Hiccup standing holding what seemed to be very heavy equipment, before he ran further into the forest, out of my sight. I had to admit I was impressed first with the fact that he stood holding some heavy equipment with ease and also with the fact that he managed to out run me carrying said heavy equipment. As I walked back to the village I couldn't help but remember other times I had seen Hiccup randomly carrying heavy loads of equipment for no particular reason. The first time was when Snotlout and I were spending a rare relaxing afternoon fishing.

_/Flashback\\_

_Snotlout and I sat on one of the piers with our feet lazily dangling off the edge while we held onto our rods. I was just about to doze off when Snotlout nudged me in the side._

"_Oi, what was that for?"_

"_Look, check out who's actually doing some manual labor" Snotlout pointed over to one of the further out piers, closer to the deep water where the bigger fish swam._

"_Oh Thor, what is he doing? He's going to get pulled under soon, what an idiot."I fell back on to the pier marveling at his sheer stupidity._

"_Look he's caught something, this is going to be funny" I shot upright and glanced over to where I saw Hiccup wrestling with one of the biggest fish I've ever seen. He effortlessly pulled the huge fish out of the water and dumped it in a massive basket that was already over brimming with fish. I relaxed back into my original position never taking my eyes of Hiccup as he threw his line back into the water._

"_Well that wasn't quite the show I was expecting" Snotlout said next to me. I carried on watching Hiccup as he piled up more and more fish._

"_Hey Snotlout, did Hiccup get here before or after us?"_

"_Ummm, I didn't see him when we got here. No we were here first because we were going to go on that pier and catch some big fish, but….er….um….my shoulder hurt, so we stayed at the shallow."_

"_So Hiccup got here after us, but has somehow managed to catch a load more fish than us, even though were fishing in shallow water where the fish are easier to catch."_

"_Um….yeah."_

_I turned back to Hiccup to see that he was staring into his basket of fish. He seemed satisfied with what he'd caught because he set his rod down and was now fastening on the baskets lid._

"_How do you reckon he's going to get that basket up the hill, it looks really heavy."I asked._

"_Dunno, he'll probably go get Gobber to carry it for him." Snotlout laughed._

_His laugh trailed off as we watched Hiccup as he effortlessly picked up the basket and sling it on his shoulders. He then looked at the position of the sun, before running….RUNNING – let me just remind you about the very heavy basket of fish on his back – up the really steep hill of the village._

"_Or, he'll just carry it himself." Snotlout said with an astonished look on his face._

_Well that was unexpected._

_3Hours later -_

_I was relaxing in my room at home when my father called me down to the living area. "Astrid take my axe down to the forge will you? It needs to be repaired and sharpened. It got damaged during that dragon raid four weeks ago."_

"_Of course father." I muttered before walking over and taking the axe out of his hands. The moment I was holding all of its weight my arms immediately fell to the floor. With A LOT of effort I managed to hoist it on my shoulder, and began the journey down the hill to the forge._

_When I got to the forge, which took me twice as long as it normally does because of my heavy load. I opened the door, walked in and straight away banged to axe down on to the table, the force causing everything on the table to jump up. Hiccup hearing the noise came out of his little work room to see what was going on._

"_Oh….Astrid…..um….hi Astrid. What… do you need?" He said whilst quickly closing the door to his work area. Suspicious I thought._

"_Is Gobber here, I've got a job for him."_

"_No he left early, maybe I can help you?"_

"_Well, I need this fixing but it really should be Gobber that does it."_

"_Why, it looks like a basic repair and sharpen, even a novice can do that."_

_He started reaching out towards the axe._

"_Be careful," I started, "It's REALLY…." Hiccup had already effortlessly picked up the axe and was heading to the workbench. "…heavy." I trailed off._

_This just isn't right first the fish, now the axe, what's going on? I thought about confronting him, but he had already started work on the axe. So I decided to leave it, until another time._

_/End Flashback\\_

The match was fast approaching, and I couldn't concentrate on training, and it was pissing me off too no end. I just couldn't stop thinking about Hiccup, it's like he's invaded my mind. I couldn't help but think about the other changes Hiccup had gone through in the last month.

I noticed that Hiccup was walking around the village, an unreadable expression on his face. He was walking in front of one of the many houses of the village. From where I was standing I could hear raised voices coming from inside the house. Someone was arguing.

"Persia if you don't give me my axe back this instant, there will be Hel to pay." Someone shouted from within the house.

"Well then Rockhead" another person shouted. "If you love your damn axe so much, go fetch it."

With that a huge axe was flung out a first floor window and was set to land right where Hiccup was standing. The was no way I could reach him in time, and it struck me as odd, how much I wanted to save him. I was actually scared that something would happen to him.

But all my worrying was for nothing as Hiccup sensing that something was wrong did a very graceful forward roll and turned to look at where the axe had embedded itself into the ground, exactly where Hiccup had been standing moments before. The two arguing Vikings ran out the house, quickly appologised to Hiccup before continuing to fight over the axe. Hiccup told them he was fine and carried on walking as if nothing happened, not like he very nearly lost his life. As I thought about it, this wasn't the first time I had seen Hiccup show some pretty impressive reflexes.

/_Flashback\\_

_We were all gathered in the arena for dragon training, awaiting Gobber's arrival. I stood with my arms folded with a scowl on my face, keeping up my tough girl image. The rest of the teens we standing in a group talking excitedly about today's lesson. Hiccup was standing away from the rest of us; his mind seemed to be elsewhere. I was too busy glaring at Hiccup to notice Tuffnut walk up to me._

"_Hey guess what happened yesterday." Tuff asked me._

"_What ever happened I don't care." I replied turning my head to stare at one of the dragon enclosures._

"_No but it was really weird, you won't believe it when I tell you."_

"_Tell me then, it doesn't look like Gobber will be showing up anytime soon." I said turning to give Tuff my full attention._

"_Well yesterday I was lobbing rocks at Ruff because she was annoying me, and I threw this really great throw, it was fast, it was strong, it was awesome. Unfortunately Ruff had moved out of the way before I threw it, so the rock was flying through the air and who should step in front of it, but our good friend Hiccup." He said in a sarcastic voice. "It was heading right for his face." I turned to inspect Hiccup's face, if this throw was as amazing as Tuffnut was saying it would have left a mark._

"_He doesn't look like he's been hit in the face with a rock." I stated._

"_I know this is where the strange thing happens. Just before the rock collided with his head, his hand shot up and caught the rock effortlessly. It was borderline spooky." Here Tuff visibly shuddered. "And then he just laughed, shouted at me to be careful where I was throwing and threw the rock back to me. It was weird, I mean it's like he knew the rock was coming, before I even threw it."_

"_It was probably just luck. Everyone gets lucky days, even Hiccup." I was now looking at Hiccups hands as he lazily swung them at his sides. Again if this throw was as powerful as Tuffnut claimed, then Hiccup should have a bruise in the palm of his hand. From what I could see his hands were still flesh pink, apart from a few, what looked like burn marks. Not a bruise in sight._

"_Now you're either over estimating the power of this throw, or your bullshitting me. Which is it?" I asked._

"_It's true. Look, I'll show you."_

_Tuffnut turned and went over to the weapons rack and bent to pick something up. I assumed it was a rock. He came to stand next to me._

"_Are you ready? Make sure you watch him. I bet you two gold pieces he doesn't get hit."_

"_Deal but you're explaining it to Gobber why Hiccup has a black eye."_

_A part of me was knew that Tuff was being stupid and that Hiccup was probably going to get hurt, but a small part of me was hoping that it was true, not only to let Tuff prove his point but so that Hiccup wouldn't get hurt. I didn't have any time to ponder this realization, before something shiny caught my eye._

_Now Hiccup was standing 30 feet away from Tuff and I, a very short distance in retrospective. Tuffnut was getting into his throwing stance and I noticed that the thing that caught my eye was in Tuffnut's right hand. What I had previously thought to be a rock turned out to be a very real, very sharp throwing knife._

"_Tuff, are you crazy?" I shouted, but it was too late, he had already released the knife from his hand. I watched helplessly as the knife flew through the air. I watched as Hiccup sensed the incoming danger and I watched as he clapped his hands over the knife, stopping it centimeters from his face. Before the realization hit me of what Hiccup had just done he was standing in front of Tuff, no idea now he managed to get over here so fast._

"_What the Hel Tuffnut? While did you throw a knife at my face?" Hiccup shouted._

"_Don't worry; I knew you'd catch it." Tuff replied with a smirk on his face._

"_Not the point. Knife… Face. What would have happened if I didn't catch it?"_

"_It doesn't matter, what does matter is the fact that Astrid owes me two gold pieces." Tuffnut smiled triumphantly at me._

"_Aghh…"Hiccup moaned, before throwing the offending knife at the weapons rack where it embedded itself in its assigned place on the rack._

_Tuff was right, that was weird._

/_End Flashback\\_

I had minutes before I had to be at the arena. As I was making my way down to the arena, I passed a group of Viking girls, about a year or two older than myself. I just caught the end of their conversation.

"I can't wait until the fight, do you think he'll do it topless. I would love to see that."

"Maybe, or maybe he'll go in wearing a shirt, but it will get ripped off during the fight, then he'll be topless and have some sexy battle scars."

"Ohhh I hope he wins. He's so much better than…. Ow what was that for?... Oh come on lets go get could seats. "

They obliviously noticed me standing right next to them. Dumb bimbos. Although I couldn't really blame them, Hiccup had something of a reputation around the village as some major eye candy. I remember the first time I noticed it.

_/Flashback\\_

_It was a very, very rare hot day on Berk and Ruffnut had managed to convince me to go sunbathing with her. We were lying across a rock in the centre of the village. I found it better to keep my eye closed for two very important reasons, first was to keep the sun out of my eyes and the second the much more important reason was to avoid unappetizing sights. This hot day had caused many Viking to shed many of their outer layers, some even going as far as to remove all outer layers, (Except to obvious of course.) which meant that no matter where you looked you had some Viking or other s large belly starring right at you. It was almost nauseating. Don't get me wrong, there were some Viking that were quite pleasing to look at, and they were few and far between so better to just avoid looking all together, save your eyes the trouble. Now back to sunbathing._

_Off to my right I could hear high pitched squealing and continuous giggling and it was really starting to annoy me. I was debating whether or not to get up and go and tell them to shut up before I shove whatever's nearby down their throats. But the last time I sat up, I caught sight of Fishlegs without a top on and I wasn't ready to see that again. So I just tried to ignore them._

_From where I was laying down, the mob of girls was too my right which meant they were outside one of three building, the Fishmongers, the Butchers and the forge. None of them particularly exciting for a mob of girls. I was really curious to find out what was happening, but then the Fishlegs image flew through my mind and I figured whatever it was, wasn't that spectacular and I decided to put up with it. Luckily for me I didn't have to put up with it for long as the group of girls suddenly went silent._

_I could tell that Ruffnut had sat up because a shadow had been cast over the top half of my body._

"_Oh my Thor…." Ruffnut gasped. "Astrid you have to see this."_

"_No I'm not falling for it again." During the past hour Ruffnut had announced several things I 'had to see', yet all of them turned out to be very disturbing sights of various Viking of the village, mostly the men showing off their proud beer belly._

"_No I mean it this time you have to see it, this view is amazing."_

_Curiosity got the better of me, and it couldn't be that bad if she was talking about the view. I pushed myself up placing weight on my hands that were stretched out behind me. I looked towards the horizon and saw….Not much, the usual sea, sky, sun. Nothing particularly amazing. "What am I supposed to be looking at?" I asked. Ruffnut didn't even take her eyes what she was looking at as she reached her hand up and pushed the side of my face until it was facing to direction of the forge where I saw Gobber walking towards the general store, who like many of the others couldn't bear to wear the top half of his clothes._

"_Ruff" I said in an annoyed voice, "You said it wasn't like the others" I huffed and was about to lay back down when Ruffnut spoke._

"_No, look a little more to your right." I did as she said and…._

"_Oh my Thor…." I gasped._

"_I know right." Ruffnut giggled._

_There I saw Hiccup walking out of the forge minus the top half of his clothes and I have to say the sight was not unappetizing. His body glistened with sweat, the beads of which glided down his broad chest before making its way down his toned abs before disappearing down his trousers. His hair was in a devilish mess some of which fell over one of his eyes before he pushed it aside. He also had dark smudges in various places on his body. Over all he looked amazingly sexy. Damnnnnnn._

_I could definitely understand what those girls were squealing at, from where they stood they would be able to see right into the forge, right into where hiccup was working, with no top on, sweating as he concentrated, and I'm going to stop that train of thought before it goes too far. I noticed that those girls were still watching Hiccup as he put his hand in a bucket of water and then swiped it round the back of his neck and I felt an unfamiliar feeling, almost like… Jealousy? I didn't stop to think about it before I walked past the girl's right up to Hiccup. I could feel them starring holes in the back of my head but I continued until I was standing in front of him._

"_Hello Hiccup" I said. He must have not noticed me because he jumped when I spoke._

"_Oh, hi Astrid."_

"_How come you're not in the forge?" I asked just for the sake of something to ask._

"_Well Gobber couldn't stand the heat so he decided to close early."_

"_Oh that's a shame because I was just about to go in and ask for a new wrist brace." I looked up at him sweetly._

"_Well I could make you one now if you don't mind me doing it."_

"_Of course I don't mind. Come on let's get back into the forge."_

"_Are you sure you don't mind waiting for it, it might take a while."_

"_No I don't mind waiting for it"_

_We walked into the forge and Hiccup immediately got to work on my new wrist brace, fresh sweat started to glide along his chiseled skin. I walked up to the shutters of the window and shot the group of girls and triumphant smile before closing them so they could no longer see him. And then I just watched him work, I watched as his muscles worked beneath his skin, the look of concentration on his face. You know I might need a new neck brace as well, I thought._

_/End Flashback\\_

I had to officially stop thinking about Hiccup now, I told myself as I stood in front of the arenas gate, thinking about him now could get me killed. I have to get my mind in the battle, but thinking about it, if I did die thinking about him, I'd die happy. I looked forward and saw Hiccup already in the Arena, unfortunately wearing a shirt. He turned round and saw me and smiled. At that moment I couldn't care less who wins, who places first. The only thing that matters is that he always keeps smiling at me. This was my last thought as I entered the arena and I took my place by his side, where I will always be.

The End

**Did you notice that towards the end Astrid had a pretty weird fascination with sweat lol.**

**I love the idea of this kind of Hiccup, which you've probably figured out if you've read my other story lol.**

**I don't think there'd anything that needs explaining, but if your unsure review. If you understand everything, good for you but review anyway.**


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